1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing system, an information processing apparatus, a computer readable medium, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
Cloud printing services provided on the Internet, such as Google Cloud Print (trademark) of Google Inc. (registered trademark), have been proposed. A user logs in to a cloud printing service from a PC or the like using a user ID in the service, and then sends print data to the cloud printing service. The cloud printing service supplies the print data to an image forming apparatus over the Internet or the like, whereby the print data is printed.
To enable use of a public cloud printing service such as Google Cloud Print, a user registers, in advance, function information etc. of image forming apparatus he or she is to use in the cloud printing service. To use the public cloud printing service actually, the user logs in to the cloud printing service, designates a print subject document, and selects, as a printing output destination of this time, one of the image forming apparatus registered in advance. In response, the cloud printing service converts data of the print subject document into print data having a predetermined print data format such as PDF (Portable Document Format), sends the print data to the selected image forming apparatus, and causes the image forming apparatus to print the print data.
There are no problems with an image forming apparatus (e.g., home printer) a user uses usually as long as it is registered in a cloud printing service so as to be correlated with his or her account (described above). Once such registration is made, a user can cause the registered image forming apparatus produce a print output by logging in to the cloud printing service using his or her account and commanding a start of printing.
However, a user is put in a different situation when he or she attempts to use an image forming apparatus that is owned or managed by another person such as one installed in, for example, a store (e.g., convenience store) on a street or a place of visit (e.g., another section of a company the user works for or a company with which the user is doing business). In general, the registration of an image forming apparatus in a cloud printing service is a permanent one and continues unless a cancellation manipulation is made (in the case of Google Cloud Print, for example). Therefore, in general, the owner or manager of an image forming apparatus cannot accept that it is registered in a cloud printing service by an irrelevant person.
In the case of Google Cloud Print, by using its sharing function, the owner or manager of an image forming apparatus can permit another person to use the image forming apparatus that has been registered in Google Cloud Print by the owner or manager. For example, a user can cause an image forming apparatus installed at a place of visit to produce a print output via a cloud printing service using the account of the owner or manager of the image forming apparatus by having the owner or manager make an account sharing setting in advance.
However, this method which uses the sharing function necessitates complicated work because it is necessary to have the owner or the like of an image forming apparatus a user wants to use make a sharing setting in advance. Furthermore, the owner or the like needs to cancel the sharing setting once printing over a cloud is completed, which is another piece of complicated work. In the case of image forming apparatus to be used by a large number of indefinite customers such as ones installed in convenience stores etc., in practice it is almost impossible for the owners or the like to make such a sharing setting in advance and canceling it after the use. Furthermore, requesting such a sharing setting in advance is very difficult in the case where a user wants to use an image forming apparatus installed at a place that is not scheduled to visit in advance.
Consider an example case that a user browse or display a document on a portable terminal such as a smartphone and tries to print the document via a cloud printing service using an image forming apparatus installed at a place of visit as an output destination. In this case, it is convenient if the user can make print settings such as a sheet type and the number of copies on the screen of the portable terminal.